Gujarat – Bhutan student found dead

A 21-year-old engineering student from Bhutan was found dead from a bungalow in Chandkheda on Saturday night, where he was staying as paying guest (PG) with other students. Chandkheda police have registered a case of accidental death and insisted on postmortem by a panel of doctors as cause of death remained unknown as of Saturday evening.Considering the gravity of the incident involving a foreign student, senior officials rushed to the spot while officials from the state government visited the college. Parents of the deceased are expected to reach the ci ty on Sunday.

According to Chandkheda police, Yadhuraj Acharya, 21, a Bhutanese national and student of Vishwakarma Government Engineering College at Chandkheda, informed police about death of Pranim Katel, 21, a fellow Bhutanese student. They stayed at Madhav Vihar Bungalows near Tapovan Circle on Visat-Gandhinagar road.

“The incident came to light, when at 9:30 am, Katel did not open his room despite repeated banging on his door by two other students living at the facility in an adjoining room. As Katel also did not receive calls made to his cellphone, they got concerned and broke down the door to gain entry,“ said a Chankheda police official.

“They found Katel unconscious on the floor with a bedsheet tied around his neck and attached to a window grill. A small amount of blood was also found on the floor,“ said the official.

Police investigators said that apart from the three who reside there, three other youths had visited the bungalow on Friday, as the group had made plans to go for movies and enjoy the long weekend.

Investigators said that no suicide note has been found from Katel’s room. The upper floor of the bungalow has been converted into PG facility, where the other two shared a larger room, and Katel had a small room to himself.

“We are not ruling out any possibility while investigating the case. We got to know that his laptop was on and he had ordered a virtual reality (VR) headset that had arrived only on Friday,“ said an official.

“We might go through digital evidences from computer and phone to ascertain Katel’s activities just before the death,“ he said.

The civil engineering faculty where Katel was studying in the seventh semester was in shock after the news. “He was a meritorious student who had received scholarship from the Government of India to study engineering. He was regular in studies and had a close-knit group of friends.We mourn his untimely death,“ said Rajul Gajjar, principal of the college.